Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April..  1907. 
Renewal  of  Prescriptions. 
177 
ties  concerned,  viz. :  the  medical  practitioner,  the  pharmacist,  and  the 
patient. 
This  plan  is  the  use  of  a  prescription  blank  that  would  be  accepted 
as  bona  fide  evidence  of  being  a  legal  contract  in  that  the  patient 
could  not  disclaim  a  knowledge  of  the  restrictive  clauses  of  the  injunc- 
tion on  the  blank. 
On  the  face  of  this  prescription  blank,  immediately  under  the 
physician's  name  and  address,  is  the  following  : — 
Note;. — The  conditions  under  which  this  prescription  is  written  will  be 
found  on  the  reverse  side  hereof. 
On  the  reverse,  and  running  across  the  centre  of  the  prescription, 
is  the  following  notice  : — 
This  prescription  is  written  for  the  party  whose  name  appears  thereon,  for 
the  present  indications  only  ;  hence  it  is  not  to  be  renezced  without  my  written 
consent,  and  no  copy  of  same  is  to  be  give -t. 
The  pharmacist  compounding  it  will  kindly  preserve  same  on  his  prescrip- 
tion file. 
Date   Dr    
The  verbiage  of  the  prescription  is  the  weakest  that  I  think 
prudent  to  use  to  meet  the  case.  The  medical  man  who  chooses  to 
use  such  a  prescription  blank  can  unquestionably  control  his  pre- 
scriptions,  but  he  at  the  same  time  assumes  the  responsibility  to 
his  patients  for  the  restrictions;  thereby  putting  him  to  an  honest 
test  if  he  wishes  his  prescriptions  to  be  or  not  to  be  renewed. 
I  believe  that  the  pharmacist   receiving  a  prescription  from  a 
physician  using  this  form  of  prescription  blank,  properly  signed 
would  have  no  alternative  but  to  respect  the  request  or  order  if  he 
wishes  to  retain  the  good  will  and  support  of  the  prescriber. 
The  pharmacist  is  further  relieved  of  any  necessity  of  explaining 
the  causes  for  the  limitations  placed  on  the  prescription  by  the 
prescriber,  and  the  inquiring  patient  should  be  referred  directly  to 
the  author  of  the  prescription  for  all  necessary  information. 
The  public  should  be  protected  against  possible  ignorance  of  the 
contents  of  compounded  prescriptions,  and  the  general  adoption  of  a 
prescription  blank  of  this  type  would  effectually  protect  the  patient 
from  any  and  all  possibilities  of  becoming  unknowingly  and  unwit- 
tingly addicted  to  the  habitual  use  of  a  prescription. 
The  merits  of  this  plan  are  so  manifest  that  it  has  been  and  is 
being  used  as  the  basis  of  the  wonderfully  satisfactory  work  done 
